“The Discipline Stop”

Abstract

Calls for the recruitment and retention of more Black male teachers have unfolded amid popular depictions of Black men as patriarchal disciplinarians. Against that backdrop, this article investigates how 11 Black male teachers were positioned as disciplinary agents in a predominantly Black urban school district on the east coast of the United States. As they described the discipline-related expectations they encountered in their jobs, study participants critiqued and complicated prevailing perceptions of Black male teachers as authoritarian disciplinarians for Black students. Through careful analyses of participants’ narratives, this article offers new insights into how Black male teachers negotiate their roles as disciplinarians, and it raises several questions that could drive future efforts to understand and support Black male teachers’ disciplinary practices in today’s urban schools.